A Slow Start
by Rowii
Summary: A 16-year-old Ash wakes up late and doesn't get to choose he's starter meaning he has to pick whatever Oak has left. With a combined IQ between trainer and Pokémon quite below average, this will make for an interesting story. No criminal organization inn this story (Team rocket etc.).
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1, The beginnings of a Slow Start**

A 16-year-old Ash lay in bed snoring, quite loudly. He had stayed up late to watch Bruno's and Agatha's closing elite four match, showcasing the end of this seasons Indigo League season. Bruno had taken an early lead, having Agatha on the rope on her last pokémon. But in the end Agatha's Gengar had been to much, taking down both Nidorino and Onix. After the trophies where handed out to the price winners the show ended, commentators wishing good luck to the new trainers. This meant that by this morning, a new season was beginning.

Dodriou's three different caws sounded, making Ash stir beneath his covers, before slowly fluttering his eyes to the glinting sun coming from the window in his room. He suddenly shot up from his bed and stared at his clock. Which showed he was almost 30 minutes too late to meet professor Oak to get his starter! Without caring to change or have breakfast, Ash dashed downstairs and put his shoes on before he ran out of his house towards Oak's laboratory.

A 10-minute dead sprint trough Pallet later, and Ash could see the crowd gathered outside off the professor's house. Ash stopped running, and with all the dignity he could muster, clad in his pajamas and panting like a Meowth in heat, Ash pushed his way towards the front door of the lab.

"Gary, Gary, he's our man. If he can't do it, no one can! Go Gary!". The sound of the awful cheerleaders that followed Gary around caught Ash's ears, and he winced at the sound. How they had nothing better to do than following him around was beyond Ash. They where standing in front of a red convertible car that Gary would be doing he's journey inn. Ash had thought I was kidding when I had said he was going to do that a few days earlier.

Pushing through the last people standing watching the Pallet kids get their starters, he finally saw Gary and professor Oak standing outside the front door.

Gary and Ash looked eyes, and with habit made from years of experience, Ash instantly narrowed he's eyes.

"Ashy boy! So, you finally decided to show up. I thought you had given up beating me even before we could get started. Too bad I already got the best of them!"

"Oh yeah? It is so good that I could take down any pokémon you train with a lone Zubat"

Gary narrowed he's eyes. "We will see little shrimp. I'm looking forward seeing you give up and take over your moms business." With a smirk he started walking towards his car.

Having watched the spectacle, Oak cleared his throat, making Ash turn towards the professor looking a little bashful for his earlier behavior.

"I'm sorry I am late professor, but I would like to choose my starter now if I could".

Oak smiled at him. "Of course, Ash, just follow me", before he started heading towards the door. On his way there he turned towards his grandson again, waving goodbye"Take good care of your starter now Gary and call your mother when you get to Viridian" he said as he waved at Gary.

"Sure thing gramps! Smell ya later. Next time we meet Ash I'm gonna make cream pie with you and your pokemon. Ash rolled his eyes and silently thought to himself that Gary got the maturity of a 10-year-old. If he ever lost to that idiot he could never show his face in Pallet town again. The embarrassment would make him rather run away from Kanto, living in the woods scaring the Pidgey's off with his homemade sword and shield, while cackling loudly about making up for lost time. He would go crazy, you get the picture. All these thoughts went trough Ash's mind while he followed Oak through his home and lab.

There where a lot of computers and machines making weird noises. He even saw an Elekid who was hooked up to what looked like jump cables for car, while a scientist stood there taking notes. Telling Elekid to gradually make more and more electricity. The Elekid was getting all cross eyed in his concentration.

"So Ash, have you decided which one you would like to pick as your starter". He and Oak had gone through some automatic doors, and apparently had entered the heart of his lab. Ash was now staring at three pokèballs standing on a table. Each with their own label for _fire, grass _and _water._

"Yeah. I choose you Squirtle!" Ash quickly made his way forward and grabbed the ball with a water label on it before he tossed it into the air, only for it to land with an empty clank noise on the floor.

"I'm sorry but somebody who was here when they were supposed to be already picked Squirtle. Early bird gets the worm and all that"

Ash stared at the ball laying on the floor. He had so wanted a Squirtle, their shell was amazing for fending off attacks and they could blast high volume of water from their mouth.

"No matter, everybody wants a Charmander!", he picked the ball up and chucked it.

Only for it to hit the wall on the other side of the room, giving off the same empty clank before opening revealing it was empty.

Ash didn't even wait for Oak to explain that somebody already had picked Charmander before he took the pokèball with the leaf symbol on it.

"I guess it's gonna be me and you Bulbasaur" Ash almost shouted and he tossed the ball high. Only for it to come right back down, clattering past the table he picked it up for.

Ash was annoyed, angry, and had developed a tic in his right eye.

"Why didn't you just say they were all picked?", Ash said in a low voice

"Well you wouldn't learn anything from that now would you. Maybe next time you will be up bright and early when you get the chance to get a Pokémon?" Oak said while he was bent over shuffling around under one of his machines.

Ash had the decency too look ashamed and averted his eyes to the floor, slightly red inn his cheeks

"I did know though that I would be sponsoring 4 trainers this season, so I prepared an extra Pokémon for the occasion" Oak said while coming back with an ordinary looking pokèball without a label on it.

"I'll take it, whatever it is" Ash desperately grabbed for the ball.

It was slightly cold, and he could feel a low thud inside. Almost like he could sense the lifeforce within. He lightly tossed the pokèball in front of him.

The ball split, illuminating red light towards the white tiles of Oaks lab. The pokémon was laying down, 4 small stubby legs protruding from his body, a tale ending in a clear white tip, while the rest of the pokémon a bright pink. The face showed two huge teeth, each protruding from a big mouth, with to small slits for a nose just above. The most noticeable of the pokémon though, were two vacant eyes that made eye contact with Ash.

Ash was standing staring there with an open mouth. "You got to be shitting me". The pokémon hadn't moved inn the few seconds it had been released from his ball, and if it weren't for the bulging eyes and the slight movement from its breathing, it might as well could have been dead.

"Now now Ash, every pokémon has its weak and strong point, you two will figure it out". Oak had been bustling around and produced a Pokédex which he put in Ash's arms and flipped it open. It instantly scanned the pokémon laying inn front of him.

"Slowpoke, the dopey pokémon. It has a tail that he uses to fish with. Slowpoke may not notice something biting for a whole day, and often forgets what it was doing". The metallic voice of the pokédex stated

Ash just continued to stare at before Oak finally caught his attention.

"Now remember you can always call me if there is anything you are wondering about. Remember to visit your mom before you go, and maybe change out of your pajamas". Oak picked up Slowpoke under his arms and started showing the shocked trainer out of his lab. This was done by literary pushing him, as the poor boy seemed to be inn shock.

Outside the door the crowd thankfully had dispersed now that Gary had left. Oak sat down Slowpoke and six pokéballs on the floor before he patted Ash's back before closing the door behind him.

Ash looked down at he's new starter. He was happy for getting a pokémon, but also a little disappointed he didn't get to choose who he wanted. He had planned on Squirtle, and if that didn't go, he wanted Charmander. He even had researched some of the basic caring tips for a young Bulbasaur, just inn case. He wasn't ready for this one though. Slowpoke caught he's eye and after a few seconds smiled at him, showing off his two huge teeth, making him look even dumber than before.

Ash sighed before returning him, before stacking his new stuff under his arms since his pajamas didn't have any pockets, starting the trudge back home.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2, The aviator goes tumbling**

Ash stood staring at route 1. The forest that separated Pallet and Viridian wasn't that large, a day's travel, and the gravel road was nice and wide. It was the perfect starting point for any aspiring trainer, hosting a wide arrange of Pokémon in the form of Rattata's and Pidgey's mostly. Maybe even his Slowpoke would stand a chance against them.

Speaking of, Slowpoke was laying beside him, having not even moved an inch since coming out of the pokèball a few seconds earlier, and was just blankly staring in front of him.

Ash sighed, at least his mother had thought that Slowpoke was cute and had almost crushed him when giving him a hug. She was quite busy, being the owner of a restaurant. But had stopped everything to say goodbye to Ash and his first partner, knowing how much Ash had been looking forward to his journey.

"Well Slowpoke, this signals the start of our journey, we are going to be the best battlers Kanto has ever seen." Ash triumphantly stated and started walking in brisk pace down the road towards the edge of the forest, ready to conquer the world. He got all off 10 feet before the lack of any sounds except his own footsteps made him turn back to see Slowpoke hadn't moved from his spot.

"Come on then! We won't find any Pokémon standing around in Pallet, we got to go!"

Slowpoke slowly turned his head towards the speaking person tilting his head slightly to the side.

"You do know how to walk right? You can't expect me to carry you all over Kanto"

Nothing. He didn't even blink.

Ash sighed and started trudging back towards his starter. He could have carried him in his pokèball, but truth be told he wasn't too keen on going into a forest full of things that could beat him up like he was nothing, all alone. He wasn't an idiot after all.

Ash took off his backpack and flipped it open. Considering he had only started his journey, and it was only a day's travel to the next town, it wasn't even half full making plenty of room.

Picking up Slowpoke wasn't as easy. He may only be just over 3 feet long, but the guy packed some bulk. If Ash was to guess, he must have been close to 90 pounds. How Oak had made it seem so easy to carry him back at the lab was beyond him. This was going to be awful.

Having secured his pokémon in the backpack, only Slowpoke's head now peaked out of the open flap of his backpack, Ash heaved it on. It had gone from blessed light to now quite heavy. He turned his head only to stare straight into one of those blank eyes, showing no gratitude to his trainer for picking up his slack. Ash sighed again. This was going to be a long day.

XxX

Ash and Slowpoke had walked for a few hours, and he felt he had made good progress. The road was made of gravel, and each step he took made a comforting sound. He could literary hear himself walking towards his destiny. Finally, he was properly starting his pokémon journey. The weather was sunny, but not to warm, perfect for a hike through the forest.

He was just about to slow down and look around for a place where he and Slowpoke could eat and have a brake when Ash saw a Pidgey just of the path, pecking away at the grassed ground probably trying to find some worms. This was the first Pokémon they had encounter on their journey. Ash grinned widely and slowly took his hands backwards, whispering "You're going to attack that bird and we are going to crush it, you got that?" He didn't expect an answer and slowly took his backpack straps off his shoulders. And just as he did it that he stepped on a few stones on the gravel path, making a slight noise. Pidgey quickly rapped his eyes straight towards the inexperienced trainer, narrowing them and seemingly ready to attack. Ash panicked and did what any good Pokèmon trainer would do, and heaved his backpack with all his might towards the bird.

Slowpoke didn't make a sound as he practically flew towards his target, his keen empty looking eyes keeping a lookout for any hindrance in his flight path.

Seeing as Pidgey was a good 30 feet away, the bird had plenty of time simply flapping his wings a few times and moving to the side making a squawking noise at the projectile while it did so. This meant that the backpack and now its helpless pilot crashed right into a tree behind it making a branch and several leaf's fall off.

If Ash didn't know any better, he would think Pidgey laughed at them, making high pitched chirps where it stood watching the spectacle. It was actually having trouble with standing upright. This must be the easiest start to a fight it had ever had.

But Ash knew better, a fallen soldier wasn't down until he was out, or something like that. And he could see flight captain Slowpoke's head peeking out from underneath the foliage and backpack, grinning stupidly back at him. Seemingly happy with his sudden new occupation as aviator expert.

"All right Slowpoke let's do this! Use umm?" Ash halted mid-sentence. He actually had no idea what moves his starter could do, if any. He would just have to guess and improvise. Every Pokémon knew tackle, right?

"Use tackle"

If he expected a fury of movement, making leaf, branch and backpack fly around as his starter picked up speed, bravely sprinting towards its target with all its might, head down, eyes closed towards victory, it was not what he got.

Slowpoke slowly extorted himself from the backpack. Making sure to brush off a few leaves which had stuck to his moist skin, before going down on four legs again and lightly started jogged towards Pidgey.

Ash wanted to sink into the ground and just stay there, this was too much.

As Slowpoke jogged towards his target, Pidgey simply took off, flying 10 feet of the ground staring back at its 'opponent'. Now some Pokémon would take this as a challenge and try to use their speed and explosive legs to jump up after the ruddy bird or maybe use a ranged move attack. Slowpoke simply admitted defeat and sat down and stared back at it.

The Pidgey seemingly tired of the idiot trainer and his bright pink Pokémon, simply turned around and flew away deeper into the forest. It was essentially flipping the bird to them.

Ash started to cry.

XxX

The sun was almost setting as Ash crested the last hill, getting a clear view of Viridian City. The city was actually the largest city in west Kanto and was even the home of a pokémongym. Though the gym was closed at the moment. The leader had absurdly enough been the leader of a criminal organization called Team Rocket. What a stupid name for a criminal organization. Since hearing it Ash always thought it sounded like a sports team. They had been trying to steal powerful pokémon while trying to track down the mythical Mewtwo, who clearly didn't exist. No one had any evidence for it or it's "mom" Mew ever being real or living inn Kanto. At least that was Ash's opinion. It had not been very difficult tracking the members of the organization down, as they all carried trackers and black clothes with a big red ''R'' in the middle of their chest. After they had infiltrated the leader's gym, which was kept as a sort of head quarter, almost all of the runts had soon been captured. It apparently had been big news, not that Ash had ever heard of Team Rocket before then. He sure was glad they got caught though as he didn't believe in him and Slowpoke being able to defend themselves against anything other than the easiest of pokémon, and even less so an evil organization. Although if Slowpoke got stolen maybe he would get another starter, which perhaps wouldn't be that bad. Did he have to insure his pokémon just in case? Could you insure pokémon?

Ash was sweating, it had been a long trek through the forest. He was sore, hungry and he had started to get a rash on his shoulders from carrying his backpack. As he stood on the crest of a small hill watching over the dense city of Viridian, he recalled Slowpoke, and started making his way down to the city and the pokémon center. Thankfully his backpack hadn't taking any damage from its flight of vengeance, and his pokémon also seem fine, not that he was bundle of personality, so seeing anything different inn him may be hard for Ash in the future too.

Seeing as Viridian was Pallet town's nearest main city, meant that he and his mom had been here many times over. But it still was strange for him be inn such a huge city, with building stretching high in the sky and people bustling around even at this late hour. He was used to the small comforts off Pallet Town. The only reason people ever had heard of it was because of Oak, and still few could place it on a map. He was kind of glad for that.

The pokémon center was easy to spot. It was a huge dome shaped building inn red and white. Right in the middle of a park. Ash couldn't see it, but he knew it had a huge letter ''P'' on its roof, just in case you were flying overhead on your Dragonite and was confused if the building shaped like pokèball actually was the pokémon center.

The automatic door opened for him and he stepped inside, he saw a few people going around. Some chatting with each other and a few caring for their Pokémon. He saw many interesting pokémons and even felt a tinge of jealousy seeing a teenage girl cleaning a Wartortle's shell with a heavy-duty brush. It even looked like she had a waxing kit ready to go when she was done scrubbing. Ash sighed. That could have been him and his starter.

As he approached the counter, Nurse joy smiled at him. The Chansey behind her was jumping up and down, clearly excited about the possibility of having more work to do. A morbid pokémon, getting excited at the thought of other pokémon being injured. It was worse than any ghost or dark type pokémon Ash had ever heard of.

"Hello nurse Joy, I just came from Pallet, could you please check on my pokémon?"

"Of course, do you have your trainer ID on you?"

"Um what?" Ash stared up at the nurse

"Do you have your trainer ID card, or something that tells me you are allowed to use the pokémon centers services?" nurse Joy slowly said, punctuating each word as if Ash was slow and didn't understand her the first time.

"I didn't get a bloody ID card. All I got was this Slowpoke, some pokéballs and this pokédex!" Ash angrily said back waving his arms around.

Nurse Joy hmphed "well why didn't you just give me your pokédex then? That is your ID"

"Oh", sheepishly said before turning in his pokémon and pokédex. "I had no idea".

Nurse Joy frowned and picked up a pamphlet standing on the side of her desk before reaching for his pokèball and pokédex. Ash stared down at the pamphlet with a grinning girl showing the peace sign standing next to a Sandshrew who looked like it was high. The background was bright red, crashing horrible with the girl's orange top.

'_**So you have just become a pokémon trainer, but have no idea what you're doing? These easy to follow steps will teach you all you need to know and more'**_

Ash seethed, how dare the woman think he was anything but a master pokémon trainer in training?! After a second staring at the title he none the les pushed the pamphlet inside his jean's pockets. Before gathering his pokédex and headed to the phones. Nurse Joy had her back turned and she didn't even bother to tell him when Slowpoke was supposed to be done with his checkup. The knucklehead would probably need a few minutes just to show her signs of intelligent life, so he probably had a few moments to make some calls.

His first call was to his mom, for the simple fact that she said she would have his hide if he didn't call her first thing when I arrived inn Viridian. After the normal gushing and prodding of how things went in the forest on his way here, he hung up and made the important call. To professor Oak. It was not that he didn't like or wanted to talk to his mom. But he was 16! The whole point about this journey was showing the world that Ash Ketchum could do thing on his own, not relying on his mom to wash his underwear anymore. Pluss he was a teenager. He was supposed to hate her by now and he didn't. He merely disliked her overbearing nature, which was harming his cool persona. Only disliking the woman had to give him some extra points.

He started to call the professor, a stupid Mr. Mime doing a robot dance to no music on the waiting screen, Ash frowned at it. After a few seconds the screen blinked, and he saw the back off a grey-haired head sitting towards a huge screen with his own face plastered on it. Ash thought he looked like shit after a full day on the road.

"Ah hello Ash, I see you've made it safely to Viridian! Nice to see you and Slowpoke working it out and getting a nice start to your journey. I got to admit I was a little nervous about your partnership not working out. But I see that inn my old age I'm just getting more and more worried about my little trainer prospects each season that passes." Oak babbled away, seemingly unaware that all Ash could see at the moment was his own face being blocked by a starting bald spot crowning the professors head.

"Um could you change camera perhaps? All I see is the back off your head professor"

Oak stood up straighter for a second, before the camera quickly shifted to one pointed towards his face.

He made an embarrassing cough before he smiled at Ash. "Sorry about that, was a little too quick on the trigger finger and forgot to change the camera settings beforehand. Now how was your journey? I can't see on your profile that you caught any pokémon. Didn't any of them catch your fancy?"

"Yeah I just focused on getting to Viridian before nightfall. Who would want a Pidgey anyway?" Ash nervously laughed, choosing not to tell Oak about Slowpoke's earlier aviating adventure.

"Ah well, you probably will find something that tickles your fancy soon enough Ash."

Ash didn't doubt that. At this point a weak old Caterpie would be a saving grace. Although with his and Slowpokes skillset at the moment the chance of catching the caterpillar pokémon was slimmer than zero percent. Making it a bad prospect.

"Now was there anything you wanted since you called me?" Oak brought Ash's attention back to his phone call.

"I was wondering what moves my Slowpoke knows? Is there a way to check?"

"Well that's easy!" Oak exclaimed. "You just need to read up on what typically a young Slowpoke like yourselves usually know from the pokédex, and then try them out. This isn't rocket science Ash!"

"So, there isn't an easier way to learn what he knows?"

Oak blinked at that. "Pokémon aren't machines made for battling Ash. They are living, breathing creatures. You must get to know them, learn their strengths and weaknesses, learn what their favorite food is and if they like to get up early in the morning or not. Pluss a hundred million other things! There is no "easy way" in training pokémon Ash."

Ash looked a little bashful at that. "I'm sorry professor, I'm just a little frustrated after today, Slowpoke isn't easy or cooperating at the moment."

"Ah you guys will come around! The Miltanks milk is always best the day after tomorrow and all that."

Ash had no clue where Oak got he's sayings from, as he had never heard anyone else but him actually say it. And he always finished them with an 'all that'.

"Now was there anything else you wanted to ask me before I lay down for the night Ash?"

"Why was the pokéballs that hosted the starters empty when I tossed them? Wasn't they supposed to be with the trainer who picked them?" Ash blurted out instantly. It had been gnawing in the back of his head since he'd set of from Pallet.

Oak blinked surprised by the question. "Well they were transferred over to their proper trainer in their respective pokéballs as they were formerly registered to me. They couldn't very well turn up at a gym or a center with a pokémon registered to me now could they. Would have ended with the trainers up in the same place that Team Rocket currently are habitating." He finished with a short chuckle at his own joke.

Ash suddenly froze and stared up at Oak. "you did remember to change the pokèball for my Slowpoke?"

Oak blinked, and after a long second answered a slow "yes." While looking very unsure of himself. Before quickly moving on "Now you need to get to bed Ash, wouldn't want the 'master in training' to lose his beauty sleep now would we?" Giving a quick smile before quickly hanging up. Turning his screen off.

Ash stared at the black screen, shock on his face, before starting to slowly turn around, expecting a herd of constables standing there ready with their batons and handcuffs for stealing a pokémon from the high and mighty professor Oak of all people. The evil nurse Joy having called the cops off him.

With a thought of a plea that he would have taken any pokémon over a Slowpoke and that he was to young and pure to be molested by the big bad Team Rocket brutes in the prison shower. He fully turned around. Only to blink and see no police officers at all, but the people and pokémon of the center staring at him with wide eyes.

After a second or two of staring he heard a small snort of laughter from a girl standing by the soda machine to his right and suddenly all hell broke loose. If Ash had to guess over 50 people and their pokémon where now laughing there asses off, all the while pointing at him while heaving for air. Apparently, his plea to the police hadn't just been a thought in his head, but also said out loud.

Ash, red and embarrassed, quickly got up from his chair and headed for the desk, praying that Slowpoke was done having his massage with the exorcist Chansey.

The damned nurse woman stood there with his pokèball smirking at him, giving him his pokémon back.

"Would you like a room at the center for the night? It is getting late you know." She faux smiled at him. But Ash narrowed his eyes at her. He could she right through her evil ploys. He still heard laughter in the background for the other occupants of the center.

"No thank you, I think I will be taking my business elsewhere." Ash said while giving her the stink eye, having developed that tic inn his eye again. He really needed to get that checked out.

Nurse Joy frowned at his wording and face, but Ash inn his embarrassment and anger hadn't found anything smarter to say. He turned around, and with his nose and hurt pride held high, he walked out of the pokémon center, into the darkened and stilled city. Upping to a full sprint when he thought he was out of view.

xXx

A cheap outer city hotel was his best bet. Although his mother owned a restaurant, Pallet was a small place, which meant that the number of customers was rather slim. They had money to be comfortable, but they weren't close to reach, and even farther from Oak family rich. Pluss being on the edge of the city meant he was a long way away from the pokémon center.

Having scoured the outer city limits, he finally saw a sad brown 3-story building, looking older than the neighboring buildings combined. Ash shrugged and walked in, finding a nice old lady with a lazy fat Glameow laying on the counter. Ash blinked at the Sinnoh region pokémon, having never seen one before.

Ash stood in the door of his room. Although the old lady on the front desk was nice, it didn't make up for the sad interior off his hotel room. It had everything he would need to be comfortable, but every furniture, like the outside of the building, was sad coffee brown. It had no technology like a TV or something else just a bland painting of Ponytas grassing on a field on the wall. It was like stepping back in time.

But Ash wouldn't complain. He was staying here for one night and he had payed the lady as if it where 30 years ago also. Cheap was always Ash's favorite choice.

Ash shrugged off his backpack on his bed, before releasing Slowpoke on to the middle of the floor of his room. Ash stared at his starter for a second to look for a reaction to his new environment but the pokémon showed nothing but a stare into the empty vast space. Ash silently thought that Slowpoke would be amazing inn poker. Though I doubted Slowpoke would comprehend the rules.

He headed for the bathroom and saw that it at least had a perfectly ordinary bathtub inn there and smiled to himself. A long day trudging along the gravel road, his pokémon on his back, had gotten him all sweaty, sore and grimy. A nice bath would do wonders for him. He left the door open to his room and started tapping the water.

What could only be called a miracle happened next, as Ash watched wide eyed as Slowpoke exploded in a fury of movement, sprinting towards the bathtub, jumping towards it while doing a perfect diving motion. That it was barely water inn it and he landed face first in hard brown porcelain didn't seem to matter much to him, as he started doing back strokes inside the tub, not really moving an inch. The biggest smile up to this point adorned his face. Apparently, he was having the time of his life.

That night after reading a certain pamphlet, Ash dreamed of the fastest Slowpoke inn all of Kanto, using its unique backstroke attack to conquer his enemies. Everyone was praising him for his immaculate training regime, as he was taking down the Elite Four all at ones as if it was nothing. Ash for the first time on his journey smiled and felt hope inn his stomach, albeit inn his dream.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3, Mankey Business**

Ash and Slowpoke were up early the following morning. Smelling the fresh cakes from the bakery across the street had woken them up, and they both had quickly gotten out of their hotel room. While eating breakfast Ash tried to do some research on his pokédex, multitasking like only proper trainers do. Young, inexperienced Slowpoke's usually knew three moves, tackle, growl and yawn. Ash had seen plenty of the later, though he couldn't see how yawning would help them in any battles. Since getting Slowpoke the pokémon hadn't made a sound, meaning he ether didn't know growl or the pink thing was mute. The pokémon in question was currently devouring a turquoise piece of cake, as he had stared at it from the moment they had entered the bakery. When Ash didn't seem to be purchasing the cake, he had starter slapping his head from his perch atop the backpack.

While reading the pokédex Ash found out that apparently Slowpoke would naturally learn psychic type moves as they grew in age and experience. That would certainly come in handy inn battles later. The dex also stated that early on they learned to harness their water power and would learn to use water gun, but that it would take a threatening situation or another reason for Slowpoke to use it for the first time, as they weren't prone to practicing new moves.

While finishing up on his bagel breakfast he got down to the theme of Slowpoke's health and diet. It stated that while the pink pokémon's diet usually depended on fish, they also ate berries and algae. The Slowpoke line was also one of the few pokémon that was lactose intolerant. At that Ash looked up, seeing Slowpoke finishing up the last bit of turquoise cream from the plate with his tongue, his eyes closed inn bliss. Ash sighed. Getting that cake was going to come back to haunt him.

Ash hadn't really decided what to do next. Since the gym inn Viridian City was temporarily closed with no date set for opening again, he had to go on to another city to challenge for a gym badge. Which meant he had two options: Ether go north trough Viridian Forest to Pewter City or go east towards Celadon or Fuschia City. He either way had to do something about him and Slowpoke. Their lone try at catching a pokémon hadn't ended particularly well and they had yet to successfully hit with an attack. He couldn't face a trainer yet, that would be even more embarrassing. He would most likely be crushed by a kid with his Rattata that he borrowed from his mom. So, the best idea he had was to just go west outside the city, into a hilly forested area. Maybe he could find some interesting pokémon there, or maybe a miracle. Because as it stood, that was what Ash needed.

Xxx

The trudge up the hills was a sweat fest, not helped by the increasingly hotter sun on the pure blue sky above. Slowpoke had sought refuge inside the backpack and was now snoring inside. Ash wondered if not the backpack would get to hot for him, but as long as he heard the rumbling the sound of his snoring he was probably alright.

After walking for a few hours Ash stopped by a tree a top of one of the hills. It gave a nice view of the area, and he no longer could see the highest buildings of Viridian peeking above the forest. The sun was still relentlessly beating down on him, and a nice break with water and some food would do him some good. He was yet to see any pokémon, except some flying ones soaring high above them.

At the rustling of the paper surrounding the food he kept inn his pocket, a pink head emergent from the backpack locking eyes with the snack inn Ash's hand, before giving him the biggest puppy eyes he could muster making him look constipated more so than cute. Either way Ash just sighed, before he split the banana bread inn two, sharing with his starter.

They hadn't been stationary long before Ash heard a sound behind him. A sort of snort and rustle inn the grass. Ash looked at Slowpoke first, but it didn't seem that the dopey pokémon had noticed anything at all, to fixed on getting to the crumps stuck on his claws.

Ash turned around, only to see a pokémon staring back at him from 10 feet away, almost blocked by the tree they where rested against. The pokémon had spindly brown feet and arms, with a round, hairy, cream white body. Under the red eyes a pink snout was curiously sniffing the air, obviously having picked up the scent of the sweet banana bread. A tail was slightly twitching behind it. Ash carefully broke off a piece of his bread and tossed it 5 feet away from him, making the pokémon come towards him. It carefully came out of the shadows of the tree, grunting and sniffing while it did so.

When it finally and carefully came upon the bread laying on the ground, it sniffed it some more. Before picking some up and eating it, making a snort of contentment and closing its eyes when it tasted the sweetness.

Slowpoke had seen the pokémon and because of curiosity approached and was now standing next to Ash.

Ash meanwhile, carefully clipped off an empty pokèball, ready to start his master training properly. He, with all his might, flung the ball, hitting the pokémon in its head. It had just enough time to look up inn betrayal and anger before the red light of the pokèball swallowed it up.

Ash grinned and thanked the heavens, he had finally caught a pokémon! But Slowpoke tugged on his pants, pointing towards the pokèball again. It was shaking, and just as Ash concluded that this might not be that easy, the ball exploded and the Mankey came screaming out.

Ash carefully assessed the situation. The pokémon had its back turned and was literary shaking inn anger. This was probably not good.

The Mankey slowly turned around, and the bright red curious eyes it had before were now a dark crimson. It started snorting and grunting, and mucus and snot started flying everywhere, while it started jumping from foot to foot. Ash felt a chill down his back. They were in trouble now.

Mankey stopped jumping, narrowing its eyes straight towards Ash. It dug its feet down in the grass, before it started a dead sprint towards Ash, screaming all the way.

Ash thought he was doomed, and the only thing he could think off doing was maybe tossing a pokèball one more time, even just to give him and Slowpoke a chance to escape. Mankey was now just a few feet from Ash, and he wouldn't have the time to throw another ball anyway.

Just as Mankey leapt towards him a pink blur crashed into it, making them tumble down the hill. Ash stared as Slowpoke now stood atop Mankey, looking angry at the other pokémon for attacking its trainer. What Slowpoke didn't count on though, was Mankey being much physically stronger, and from its position underneath him, he literary tossed him upwards, Slowpoke gaining a few feet of air before landing hard on the ground.

Mankey wasn't just angry anymore, it was livid. And now stood vibrating while making all kinds off noises. It now was staring at the pink pokémon ready to attack again.

Ash saw Slowpoke go in front of him, and he now had precarious position in front of a furious pokémon, and Ash felt he had to help, the only way a trainer can: By screaming at him.

"Slowpoke use tackle"

Slowpoke readied do dive into Mankey, only for the other pokémon to close the distance kick in right inn his side, making Slowpoke crumble and tumble again.

Mankey jumped a few times on his feet, screaming bloody murder to the sky, apparently dishing out punishment had made it even more angry.

Mankey, seeing Slowpoke was temporarily out of the fight, turned around to the original instigator, and started snorting and walking towards Ash.

Slowpoke on the ground, seeing his trainer in peril, got to his feet again and delivered a tackle to the back of Mankey, making it slide inn the dirt of the grass.

Slowpoke ran towards Ash before turning, keeping himself between Mankey and his trainer again.

Ash was inn shock at his starter. He had done nothing but belittle him since getting him, and here he was protecting him against a rampaging monster.

Speaking of, the little monster. It had recovered for the backstab from Slowpoke and was now snorting at both of them again.

Mankey started of sprinting again and before Ash could react or Slowpoke could get away, scratched him on Slowpoke on the cheek.

"Use tackle again" Ash had recovered from the shock of seeing his pokémon come to his defense.

Slowpoke jumped up, hitting Mankey midjump in what presumedly was its stomach.

Slowpoke though landed hard, not used to be jumping, even though he was an aviator expert.

Mankey landed perfect, and as soon as Slowpoke landed kicked his feet under him, making him tumble a few feet down the hill. Slowpoke was taking a beating and was looking rough.

Mankey again turned towards Ash, starting a dead sprint towards him. Before getting hit inn the back of the head again, this time by a surprise water gun from the prone Slowpoke.

Slowpoke again sprang up the fastest he could, though it wasn't very fast, while Mankey lay face down again inn the grass. Keeping himself between the trainer.

Mankey wasn't done though, and seemed even angrier than before, standing slowly upright. That was when Slowpoke did the unthinkable and yawned. As if he was bored of the battle.

Mankey's right eye ticked, and he started running towards Slowpoke again more angry than ever before, though his movement seemed a little sluggish.

When it got close to Slowpoke Mankey was so slow that even he could dodge it, taking a step to the side.

Mankey crashed for the third time face first into the grass. And seemingly started snoring.

Ash couldn't believe what he had just witnessed. And as he was now staring at a sleeping Mankey. Slowpoke slowly trudged back towards the food laying on the ground, starting to lick it up.

Ash meanwhile carefully took out it's pokédex and scanned the pokémon.

"Mankey, the pig monkey pokémon, it lives inn colonies inn the mountains and are extremely quick to anger. If angered, it won't stop raging before it falls asleep, where it continues to have a frenzy inn its dreams." The metallic voice of the dex uttered.

"Next time I'm scanning before I chuck a pokèball at anything." Ash lowly said to himself. He still had adrenalin cursing trough his body, while taking the next empty pokèball from his belt and tossed it towards Mankey, while praying a silent prayer to himself.

Mankey engulfed inn red light before he disappeared into the ball.

The ball didn't twitch this time, and just sounded out a small *ping* when it landed on the ground.

Ash couldn't believe it. He had actually caught a pokémon!

Xxx

Having given Slowpoke all the food he could eat and sprayed the one potion he had bought before leaving Pallet on him, he started looking better. Ash started packing down the things they had before putting Slowpoke in the backpack and heaved it on his back. That was again when Ash heard several noises similar to before, but by the movement from his back, this Slowpoke also heard.

He turned around towards the heavy forested area to the east of him and saw movement inn the top off the trees like if a flock of Tauros was on their way.

Suddenly, around 20 Mankey's and a huge Primape stood at the edge of the forest, staring at him with angry eyes, making all kind of noises.

That's when Ash remembered what the Pokédex said, "mankey's lives inn colonies''. They must have heard it screaming inn battle and was now coming to its rescue, only to find no Mankey, but a stupid trainer and his pokémon.

The Primape blew a mighty snort, and as group of soldiers, Mankey's started advancing towards Ash.

Ash did for once the sensible thing and turned tails and started sprinting down the hill.

The hill was steep, which actually helped Ash because of his longer legs as he could hold a faster pace down the hill.

Now if Ash was a smart boy, which he certainly wasn't, he would head back east, towards Viridian. Inn the heat of his getaway, he headed straight north towards what only could be described as empty forest land. Though Ash didn't know that.

Ash's legs were burning, but the chittering and snorts from the angered Mankeys was seemingly coming closer, which was enough motivation for him to continue running.

Slowpoke was currently acting like a water turret from his position in atop the backpack, blowing water gun at any who came to close. But the sheer force of numbers meant he couldn't keep all of them away, and one got close enough to trip Ash up with its spindly leg, making Ash tumble forwards to the ground.

Ash landed hard on his stomach and Slowpoke flew out of the backpack, making him fly 5 feet in front of Ash. Ash kicked the Mankey who had tripped him right inn the nose, making him lose its grip before I sprang up and took Slowpoke inn his arms and started running again.

They were now doomed. Utterly fucked.

Ash rounded a big cluster of trees, before entering on a small dirt path. This had to end up somewhere. He was desperate for it to do so.

The mankey's where again catching up, and Slowpoke started to climb his trainer, now holding around his head while firing off more water guns.

The trail led down and across a bridge over a small river, and Ash saw the trail ended by a small cabin atop another small hill. Thinking that it was there only hope, Ash spent the last of his energy sprinting up towards it.

He had to shake off Mankey who Slowpoke had missed before he got to the door, which he threw open and rushed inn and closed it behind, just in time to hear a sickening thud as another Mankey crashed into it.

"What the hell are you doing here?!" a gruff voiced said loudly.

Ash turned around, only to see a man clad in a dark bathrobe sitting by a table. A steaming hot cup of tea in front off him. The cabin was entirely made of dark brown wood and was only one room. Ash could see a bed in the corner, and towards the other corner what some people could be called a kitchen.

"They are coming" was all Ash got out, gasping for air after his long sprint.

"What are you talking about boy?" The man stood up, angry at his intruder, and starter walking towards Ash, fist clenched.

A huge snort was heard outside, and the man stopped and listened. Then a huge boom was heard towards the door. The Mankey's and their leader was starting a siege war, and the door was there point of attack.

The man narrowed his eyes and looked towards Ash. "You brought a pack of Mankey's to my house?" the man growled darkly

Ash still wheezing after his run only uttered "didn't… see... any… where… else… to… go".

"Well we'll se about getting them away" the man narrowed his eyes inn thought, before he walked back towards his bed, picking up what looked like a pokèball with yellow circles on its vertical sides.

A new resounding boom was heard against the door, but it was holding up still. Ash whimpered. Slowpoke had taken up position right inside off the door with a determined look in his eyes, ready to fight whatever came through.

The elderly man let loose his pokémon from the ball, only for the pokémon to be an bigger ball, a white top half and a red bottom half.

"Electrode, go out there and get rid of the pesky Mankey's won't you?" he said like it was an every day occurrence. "I think a discharge would suffice, don't you?"

The Electrode gave its trainer a grin and a rolled nod, before it started rolling towards the door, giving Slowpoke a wink before picking up speed barreling into it and crashing through the door, sending the team of mankey's who was on door opening duty, flying.

"You may want to cover your eyes" the man said towards the intruding couple, just before Electrode started spinning inn place just outside the cabin's front lawn. The Primape snorted and apparently gave order to attack as every single Mankey jumped towards the spinning Electrode.

Ash covered his eyes, and pulled Slowpoke underneath him, shielding him in case off collateral damage.

Half a second later, an electric thud was heard before everything went ere quiet.

After a few seconds of silence, Ash hazarded a glance between his fingers and saw that most off the mankey's where running. And those who weren't lay twitching on the ground. The Primape were nowhere to be seen.

The black-haired man stood looking at his broken door, carefully kicking out the biggest pieces from his hut.

Ash stood up and carefully walked towards the door and outside. The Electrode looked fine and were making metallic noises off glee while it was bouncing up and down on a twitching Mankey, each bounce making Mankey jerk a bit more. Electrode gave Ash a huge grin.

"What did you do to deserve that?" The man said calmly, still staring at the state off his door.

"What makes you think I did something?! They are crazy wild pokémon!" Ash indignantly said, waving his arms for extra measure. He was stilled filled with adrenaline.

"They know not to cross the river." The man simple stated. "So, what did you do to them?" He took a threatening step forwards towards Ash.

"I umm… I tried to catch one lonely Mankey who came towards us while we were eating. And we got into a fight. And then it screamed bloody murder, and they must have heard it and came to his rescue." Ash babbled as fast as I could.

The man blinked in thought. "Ah, yes they have some protective instinct for their own pack. Where you able to catch it?"

Ash nodded, clipping off his pokèball and showing it to the man.

He nodded and turned towards his door again pointing at it. "You're paying for that." And then he walked inside. "And here, you have more use for it than I do". He came out again holding what looked like a bunch of bananas. "This is Golden Nabans. They are not from here. They will calm down most pokémon, even your Mankey. Use it to befriend it."

Xxx

After paying for the door, Ash now stood looking up at his savior. He had found Slowpoke promptly asleep where he had left him inside the cabin and decided he'd had a long day and recalled him. He deserved some rest.

"Thank you, sir, I don't know if we would have survived if it weren't for you".

"You kind of forced the issue by bringing them to my front doorstep"

Ash looked down on the ground. "I'm sorry sir, it won't happen again".

The man looked a little softer at him. "You are an idiot, a total dunce. But at least your hearts in the right place."

"Now you will go down and cross the river again, and then follow it south-west until you see big buildings, then you will know you are close to the city." He said the last part sarcastically.

Ash was to grateful to the man to get angry for the barbs against his intelligence, and instead looked up on him again and asked "What's your name? If you don't mind me asking."

The man looked at him. "I do mind, and I won't say. Now leave, shrimp. Before I set Electrode at you". The pokémon in question stood behind him and started making threateningly metallic clicks while grinning hugely, jumping even higher. Ash took the hint and turned around towards the river. "Thank you again sir" he mumbled before setting off.

"Don't mention it Ash." The old man quietly said, just outside Ash's hearing range.

Xxx

Ash now had a mission. A prober ninja mission.

He needed to get into the pokémon center, not just to check up on Slowpoke, who had taken a beating, but also to check out his Mankey. It could have a weird knee or be missing a toe for all he knew, and that sort of information was important before he started training him.

The reason this was a ninja mission, was because of his earlier experience at the center. Meaning he would need to go inn the night when there were no people inside, and when the evil nurse Joy was off duty.

Luckily for him, after following the river back to Viridian City, it was already 3 at night. Making it the perfect time to execute his stealthy mission.

Donning his darkest clothes and using the shrubs in the park for cover. Ash was like a shadow in the night, totally invisible to the mortal man, jumping from bush to bush. That was until the automatic door to the center opened for him, making a musical ping.

The person behind the counter looked up, only to smile and wave at him

"Oh so you are back! It is so good off you not to let your past dictate where you go inn life. Even though they still talk about your confession every evening here." The evil nurse chuckled at her own funnies.

"DON'T YOU EVER SLEEP?!"

She narrowed her eyes. "My shift started just now, but if you are going to be that way, we aren't open for you."

Ash narrowed his eyes, his objective to avoid that woman may have failed, but his objective was still active.

He walked with all the dignity he could towards the counter, clipping both off his pokéballs of his belt.

Giving his biggest fake smile Ash asked very kindly: "Could you please check up on my pokémon? We have been training very hard." The nurse looked a little confused at the sudden change of moods but took the balls either way and said she would call him when she was done.

Ash grinned. Inside on off those ball was a rapid Mankey, hungry for the sweet, sweet revenge after getting caught. That the first thing to kick and punch just happened to be Nurse Joy, well that wasn't Ash's fault now was it.

With a glee and a pep inn his step Ash found a couch where he could sit down. Now Ash had been up almost 24 hours and had quite an eventful day, so naturally he was very sleepy. Though he stayed up inn the hopes of hearing the ruckus Mankey would create. Maybe it would give that evil Chansey a well-deserved punch in the gut.

Chuckling to himself of all the entertaining thoughts, it was quite a shock when a calm voice called him over after a few minutes saying his pokémon was done.

"Your pokémon are fine they just need some rest. That Mankey of yours is truly a cutie". Nurse Joy smiled at him.

A mute Ash inn shock just took his pokéballs, turning around and started walking out. All the while he was grumbling to himself.

At least his next move was easy. He now had a water and a fighting type. Brock the rock trainer inn Pewter City gym was going to get crushed.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4: A dueling tango**

The road ahead was now laid out for Ash. An easy step for the master inn training. All he had to do was cross the Viridian Forest and then give a spanking to Brock's pokémon. Easy.

Well first he had to work out a problem. What to do with his freshly caught pokémon. Apparently, Mankey could sense the evil inside Nurse Joy, and so played it cool when getting a checkup. But how would he react to the pure soul that was Ash Ketchum?

To figure it out he had to release the crazy thing. And so it was, standing on the outside of the north gate by Viridian City, that Ash released Mankey. Slowpoke at the ready to break it into submission. Not that he could last time they tried.

Mankey appeared inn a flash off red, looking around, seemingly taking inn its new environment, before he sat his eyes on the pair who caught him, instantly narrowing them.

Ash held up his hands. "We're not here to fight you. I caught you because I want you to be my new partner. We will battle and win, you will get all the food you want, and you will become the strongest Mankey Kanto has ever seen.

Mankey looked skeptical at first, thinking for a few seconds, before reluctantly nodding his head.

"Yes! This is going to be awesome. Brock doesn't stand a chance, Uughgh!" Just as Ash finished the sentence Mankey hit him in the nuts, forcing Ash to one knee.

"Guess I deserved that" Ash was able to wheeze out. Mankey snorted.

Xxx

Ash quickly learned that though Slowpoke liked to be outside his pokèball, staying on his perch on the backpack. Mankey just couldn't be lose.

Every trainer or pokémon they met or saw, Mankey would go into a frenzy, ready for a battle. Ash had to calm him down with the food from the mystery woodsman. Or if that didn't do the trick he just had to recall him before he beat up someone.

It all came to a head when he got challenged for a battle. They're first proper battle. They had only been walking for a few hours and was on the crest of Viridian Forest, when a guy about his age came screaming out of the tree line, saying he wanted to battle.

The dude was wearing shorts, tank top and a huge hat and mosquito net inclosing his head. He even had a butterfly catcher. Ash couldn't see how any pokémon actually would stay caught inn it, as they easily could break the net and was much stronger than the boy.

Ash, confident that he could beat the idiot, put Slowpoke in front of him. Slowpoke made short work of the first two Caterpie's and a Weedle, the guy apparently had endless supply. He then sent out a Metapod. Ash seeing this as an opportunity to get to know Mankey's fighting style sent him out.

Before Ash could react, Mankey had taken a dead sprint towards the bug pokémon, picked it up and heaved it straight at the other trainer's head hitting with a resounding crack. The kid fell down while screaming, clutching his nose.

"I think I broke my nose! You're pokémon broke my nose"

"Technically your own Metapod broke your nose" Ash instantly defended.

The kid, from his position on the ground, gave Ash the stink-eye, blood flowing down his face.

Mankey and Slowpoke was laughing there asses off, and Ash quickly recalled both off them, hoping to not anger the kid even more.

"You can't be serious, your pokémon attacked me, it should be put down!"

Ash narrowed his eyes. "It was battling your pokémon, and its your own fault that you were standing inn his way"

"He aimed for me" The kid indignantly said.

"Now you don't know that. But from the look off things your Metapod is done. So I win the battle." Taking out his hand. "You owe me money". Mankey had definitely aimed for him.

The bug catcher narrowed his eyes, before he took up his pokédex and Ash's own made a ping, the money being transferred.

"You and your pokémon are crazy" was the last thing he said before returning Metapod and started walking towards Viridian City. All the while holding up his shirt to his nose to stem the blood flow.

Ash was just smiling. They had won their first pokémon battle. All without even taking a hit. Sure, Mankey almost knocked out the other trainer, but hey, they got some money.

As the pokédex was their trainer ID and account, it meant that for them to battle for money they had to connect there pokedex's together before they started the battle. This way they also got it onto their official record how many matches they had won and so on. All this information the Pokémon League used at the end of season, giving out prices for best performance, best stats and much more. This was the Pokémon league season. The Indigo League was a separate cup, only those earning eight out of 11 badges from the different sanctioned gyms around Kanto being able to compete. Ash's dream was to win at Indigo, being on TV and beating all the others. Thereby earning the right to fight the Elite Four. Last year's Indigo winner, a man from Vermillion City named Bob, hadn't even beaten three of Lorelei's pokémon in his first battle against the Elite Four. Showing just how strong they were.

Ash's record now stood at a respectable 1-0. He was undefeated, and that would only keep going. Pokémon battling was easy.

xXx

The first night outside had been weird and a little scary. But Slowpoke had laid right next to him, a comforting snoring heard all through the night, which made it better. He had heard strange noises from time to time but eventually he got used to it and found sleep.

It was now day 3 on his journey through Viridian Forest. And so far he hadn't battled anyone else since the first one. He hadn't either seen any interesting pokémon except a Pidgeotto who was staring at them from a tree. Ash didn't dare to try and catch it, not believing Slowpoke strong enough to take it. Mankey was at a massive disadvantage so that was also out of the question.

Slowpoke and Ash had stopped for a brake, and for once Slowpoke was actually walking around checking out it's environment. Ash left him too it, silently encouraging his starter to move around a bit more, he was getting pudgy. The Pokédex had said that Slowpoke's evolved forms, Slowbro and Slowking, was more active than its prior form. That would be a blessing, if he ever evolved.

Ash had only been sitting down a few minutes when he saw Slowpoke return, with something beige/yellow inn his mouth.

"No! Bad Slowpoke, don't eat the Kakuna!"

Slowpoke gave him a look and released the poor Kakuna. The cocoon pokémon was full off slobber and where making unhappy noises and chitters.

"We don't eat other pokémon" Ash chastised Slowpoke.

The pokémon only gave him a look before staring at the pokèball, then to Kakuna, then back to Ash.

"Oh" Ash stopped at that. "You wondered if I wanted to catch it?" Slowpoke slowly nodded.

Ash smiled down at him, and for the first time actually patted Slowpoke's head softly.

"I won't catch him. He isn't very strong inn his Kakuna form, and his evolved form Beedrill aren't exactly my favorite." They were scary as fuck. 3 foot of bug with huge stingers. No thank you.

Slowpoke sighed. So much work for nothing.

Kakuna was still making a racket, very unhappy by the treatment from the pair. It was still dripping slobber. It was moving, shaking a bit from side to side. Ash didn't know a Kakuna could move.

As Ash was staring at the moving form, he heard a buzzing sound. Ash knew immediately what it was. Beedrill was coming. And from the sound of it, the whole world's population of them was coming.

Ash scooped up Slowpoke and started to run.

"Why are we always running?!" Ash roared out, all the while sprinting with all his might, Slowpoke inn his arms. "It hasn't even been a week since the last time!"

He chanced a look behind him and for the first time saw the chasing party. It was more Bedrill than he could count, and they were reeling him inn.

Ash speed up and raced trough the trees, rounding them and sprinting out onto a more open field.

He scared a few Rattata's who ran from him in the tall grass, but Ash was inn a hurry and didn't care. The Beedrill were catching up.

Were as Mankey's would beat you up, Beedrill will sting you 50 times, pumping your body full of poison made to take down much bigger threats than a lone 16-year-old and a Slowpoke. As such, getting caught by them was top 3 worst things that Ash could think off happening.

Taking another look back, Beedrill was now just a few feet from them. It was hopeless.

Ash was now almost at the tree line again, having sprinted across the meadow. The Beedrill would have an advantage on him in the forest, so he had to do something else.

To his right there was a small pond, though it seemed quite deep. As his only hope, with Slowpoke inn his arms, he dived inn.

The cold water washed over him, a shock to his system. He swam a little deeper, out of Beedrill's stingers range. Slowpoke wiggled inn his grip, Ash almost forgetting he was still holding him, making him release his starter from his arms.

Slowpoke, being a water type, was an excellent swimmer, and swam a bit away from Ash, looking up to the surface.

Ash also turned around and looking up he saw the Beedrill circling around over the water, waiting for something to surface.

Ash already being out of breath from sprinting before he jumped inn, already felt the effects of holding his breath. He let himself sink down lower inn the water, maybe if Beedrill couldn't see him they would fly away.

Darkness rimmed his vision, but he still held out. The Beedrill was carefully prodding the water, testing to see if he was just under the water.

Ash blinked again and let out some air, watching the bubbles rise towards the surface.

It was not long until darkness fully clouded Ash's vision.

xXx

He was flying on the back of his Charizard through the clouds. He had a milkshake inn hand, strawberry of course. His Dragonite was flying ahead of them, blowing hyper beams at Pidgey's and Spearow's. He was the champion, the undisputed champion of all of Kanto. People bowed down to him inn the streets. But he was still humble. Hell, he was just a teenager from Pallet. He may have never lost a damn battle, but he was a man of the people.

He had won the Indigo easily, and then went on to beat Lorelei, Bruno, Agatha and Lance, the Elite Four. Each one barely able to keep up with his mastery inn battling, everyone eventually crumbling to his superior pokémon.

Xxx

Ash coughed, feel water spill from his mouth. It was difficult to breath, as his chest felt heavy.

He coughed again, fluttering his eyes as he did so. His vision was blurry, and he only could see colored shapes. He could see the water an encompassing his legs, though most of his body lay in the grass. He looked down on his chest and only saw a pink blur.

Ash smiled. "You keep on saving my life you know. Only this time it was your fault to begin with." He coughed some more but was silently laughing. Glad they had survived.

And for the first time heard Slowpoke make a sound. A slow dopey moan while the pokémon smiled, showing off his to white teeth.

"You sound even more stupid than you look, so you better keep silent. How am I to get the ladies if you are around sounding like a Tauros with a potato stuck in its throat." Ash laughed and coughed at his own joke, and Slowpoke smiled, just happy his trainer was fine enough to still make jokes after his little swim.

Ash sat up and felt his wet clothes and backpack clinging to his body. "I guess we might as well take a night here." Finally gaining his vision back, he saw that Slowpoke must have dragged him up by his collar. Ash looked down and saw Slowpoke almost falling asleep on his legs. He wrapped him inn a hug. "Thank you. You are incredible". Slowpoke blinked but seemed happy with the praise and cuddle.

xxX

The rest of Viridian Forest was blissfully uneventful. And the slopes towards the city begun. Pewter and the area around were highlands, filled with high snow peaked mountains, most notably Mt. Moon. Pewter rested in the middle encompassed by mountains, originally built as a trading post for the different settlements and trainers who were around the area. Inn modern time it had sprang up as a workman's city. It was known for its mining, museum and rugged pokémon. It wasn't even half the size of Viridian City but still held a decent amount of people.

Ash still had some ways to go from the edge of the forest until he was going to see Pewter City. He hadn't been out of the forest long before he saw a guy inn a bright red jacket training with his pink Nidoran. The pokémon was jumping around, trying to hit apples with its horn which the trainer was throwing. The trainer looked up and waved at them.

He of course asked for a battle, saying he needed experience since he and Nidoran had lost to Brock earlier that day.

This had to be easy, the Nidoran looked quite small, and they had lost to Brock, Ash guessed they probably didn't have any other badges either. So Ash readily accepted and threw out Mankey. He didn't use Slowpoke as he and Mankey had no experience together except one battle, and if they were to face Brock they had to be on the same side.

They were standing on a flat piece of grassland with about 50 feet between each trainer. Mankey came out and snorted at his opponent, apparently not impressed by its little stature.

"Nidoran use peck"

Damn wasn't that a flying move?

"Mankey kick the shit out of it!" But he was to late as the Nidoran came jumping towards him with its horn, scoring a direct hit. Mankey screamed inn pain.

"Mankey kick him!" If it didn't work the first time it better work the second time.

Mankey turned around and in pure anger, finally taking his opponent seriously, rushed towards Nidoran who just landed and scored a perfect low sweep, taking out its leg making it fall.

Yes, Ash thought, that had to have done damage. But the little shit just sprang up and started trying to peck Mankey again. Apparently Low kick hadn't done much to it.

Mankey was flailing around, doing cartwheels and jumps to get away from the pink pokémon. Anything Mankey did just didn't seem to face his opponent.

Time for a change in tactics. "Mankey use leer". Mankey jumped out of reach of Nidoran and made the most intimidating glare he could muster. The pink pokémon halted its attack, suddenly seeming unsure.

"Now use scratch", Mankey started sprinting towards the stopped Nidoran.

The trainer tried to scream an order to his pokémon, but he was to late as Mankey had reached it target and raked it across his face.

Everything seemed fine and dandy, until Mankey hunched up and started puking. "What the fuck?!" Ash stammered.

"We got it now Nidoran, use double kick!" The pink little thing did an kung fu spin, coming flying towards the hunched Mankey. Ash's pokémon just had time enough to look up, seeing the foot of Nidoran right inn front of him before it hit him in the face.

Mankey skidded a few feet inn the grass before grinding to a halt, not moving.

Ash was staring, not understanding were it had gone wrong, before he returned him.

Taking up his pokédex and transferring the money, he saw that his funds was nearing zero, the damned door he had to pay for was going to be his ruin.

The other trainer was now dancing a celebratory tango with its pokémon, Ash didn't even say goodbye or give the pair another look before leaving, heading up the road towards Pewter City. Pokémon training sucked.

Xxx

Pewter City was rustic and pretty, though Ash was not inn the mood to appreciate it. He felt stupid. He couldn't even beat a kid with a turquoise little rat with a small horn. How inn the hell was he supposed to win the Indigo League, let alone Brock?

The pokémon center was located south in the city which meant Ash meet it without really meaning too. Sighing, he went inn to heal his pokémon.

"Hi and welcome to the Pewter City pokémon center how can I help you?" A nurse Joy smiled at him sweetly. Like a Gengar luring inn its prey.

After the normal procedure of: hi I'm ash, yes can you heal my pokémon, no I don't want a room where you can murder me inn my sleep. Ash was now standing in front of Pewter City Gym. His Mankey had been a bit beat up but didn't need more than a nice rub down from an especially creepy Chansey.

Ash had tried to read up on Brock while his pokémon were getting tested for STD's, but all he could find was that he was one of the youngest gym leaders inn Kanto, he loved to cook and he used and trained rock pokémon. Ash sighed and made his way to the gym, asking directions from a creepy middle-aged man wearing a red hat that was way too big for him.

The gym was made of rocks. Small rocks for wall and a huge squared stone put on top as a roof. Apparently creative design wasn't Brock's strong suit. The doors were heavy, and Ash had to use all his might and weight to make it move.

Inside there was grey polished stone floors and walls. It had several doors going inn different directions and one big double door with the words 'ARENA' chiseled on it. Inn the middle stood a desk, with a kid sitting behind it.

"You here to fight Brock?" The kid barely looked up from behind his computer screen. He couldn't be more than 10.

"Yeah"

The kid practically ripped the pokédex out of the hand Ash was holding out.

"How many badges have you won previously?"

"Umm none"

The Kid finally looked up and frowned at him, giving back Ash's pokédex. "Ah, a rookie. How many pokémon do you have"

Ash huffed in indignation. Before he slowly uttered "Two."

"Perfect, it will be good practice for our new pokémon, go on." The double doors opened.

Ash stuttered. Who the fuck did this kid think he was coming here calling him a rookie?! A damn rookie?! He was going to show the little shithole, to hell with gym badges.

"Is the challenger coming?!" A voice hollered from inside the arena, making Ash come out of his angry thoughts.

"Yeah his coming, although I think the challenger is challenged." The kid howled back. Giving Ash a grin.

Ash ignored the kid and started walking inn a brisk pace towards the open arena door before he decided to erase the boy from the face of the earth. It probably wouldn't do his status as a master in training any good to spend time in jail.

Ash fumbled when he got inside the double doors. As soon as he stepped inn the lights turned on and the arena lit up. A 60 feet area outlined inn white lines, with to high platforms for the trainers to stand in each end.

As Ash got to the top of his platform, he saw the field fully for the first time. The field was that of sand, though heavy rocks littered the area, making it seem like a bomb went down right inn the middle. On the other platform stood a man, no more than 20 years old, dark skin, spiky hair and a horrible green vest – orange shirt combo. He may be a rock pokémon prodigy, but he wasn't going to become a fashion icon any time soon.

"So, I'm your first gym battle eh?" Brock had a surprisingly low voice.

Before Ash could answer, another kid, this time even younger, stood upon a pillar that was lifted up inn the middle of the field, started to yell:

"THIS IS AN OFFICIAL GYM BATTLE BETWEEN BROCK, THE PEWTER CITY GYM LEADER, AND CHALLENGER ASH KETCHUM, A ROOKIE OUT OF PALLET TOWN!" If Ash could he would have let Mankey loose on that kid.

"EACH TRAINER WILL BE ABLE TO USE 2 POKÉMON AND THE BATTLE IS OVER WHEN ONE SIDE'S POKÉMON IS UNABLE TO CONTINUE. THE CHALLENGER CAN USE SUBSTITUTES. LET THE BATTLE COMMENCE!"

"Since you're new, I choose Aron" Brock dramatically ended it with a flourishing throw.

Out of the pokèball came a small white pokémon, with two blue huge eyes and four stubby legs. It looked about a foot long as it stood there glaring at Ash

"What the hell is that?" Ash had never heard or seen one of those and quickly took up his pokédex and scanned it.

"_Aron, the iron armor pokémon. Aron feeds of iron ore, and can sometimes be found eating railway or your neighbors shovel"_

"I just got it from a breeder inn Hoen. This will be perfect for her first proper match."

Ash gritted his teeth. He had tried to do some research on rock pokémon inn Kanto, looking for weaknesses. The little pebble made things difficult. He nonetheless had to stick to his plan.

"I chose you, Mankey!"

Brock frowned from the other side. Apparently choosing Mankey had been a good choice.

"Use harden then headbutt!" Brock barked out.

The little thing scrunched up his face and concentrated, and Ash could see its armor glinting inn the flood lights. It then sprang up and started to run at Mankey, making a last-minute jump, head first.

"Just punt it!" Ash hoped to get the timing right.

Mankeys foot met Aron's head perfectly, and the rock pokémon went flying the opposite end, hitting the wall behind Brock. Mankey would have made a great kicker, as that was easily a 50-yard attempt.

Brock frowned and returned Aron, apparently a one hit KO had come at a surprise. Ash and Mankey were both celebrating as if they've won the whole match.

Brock smirked, clipped off a new pokèball.

What came out could only be described as a massive rock snake. 30 feet in length, Onix bellowed out, finally free to fight once again.

The celebrators had now stopped, and where now staring open mouthed at the towering pokémon in front off them. Ash had expected maybe a Geodude, or a Rhyhorn at best. A fully grown Onix hadn't seemed likely when reading up on rock pokémon.

"Onix use rock throw" Brock wanted to get started.

Onix slammed his tail into the ground, making rocks fly. Before catching some with its tail and started hurling them towards Mankey.

Mankey's eyes went wide and he started sprinting and jumping to get away, inadvertently getting closer to the gym leaders' side of the field.

"Now wrap him!" Brock closed his fist, before Onix sprang up surprisingly fast and tried to catch Mankey, as he was now much closer.

"Mankey jump on him!" Using the end of the tail as a spring board, Mankey sprang up over Onix.

"Now use karate chop!" Mankey twisted in the air, on his way down towards Onix, fist ready to connect to the monster's head, only to get batted straight out of the air as Onix flicked him with his tail.

Mankey landed ugly, face first, but still seemed to have some energy left. He sprang up and started again sprinting towards his target again.

"Wrap him up, make it count!" Being a gym leader apparently didn't make for a creative battler as Onix once again sprang towards its target.

As Mankey readied itself to dodge, Onix switched tactic, and instead of using its tail it came head first, surprising Mankey.

Ash could hear the squeals and snorts of discomfort from his pokémon but couldn't see him, as he was now wrapped up in Onix's rocky body.

"Try low kicks and karate chops, get free!" He desperately tried to call out.

He could hear Mankey trying his best but it was apparently not doing much as Onix seemed fine. It didn't last long before Mankey became silent and Onix released him, making its way towards its trainer again.

Ash returned Mankey. He had so hoped that Mankey would be able to do it. But at least he had fought a while and maybe even scored a few hits. Onix definitely wasn't fresh.

"Go Slowpoke, finish him"

Ash may have sounded confident, but by Slowpoke's look when he came out of his pokèball, seeing what he was facing, he certainly wasn't.

"Use water gun!" Time to start peppering the snake.

Without commands, Onix again slammed his tail, making rocks fly up. Perfectly timed to intercept the water gun.

"Dig." Brock barked a one-word command and Onix almost instantly vanished from sight, only leaving a massive hole left.

"Stay ready Slowpoke." Ash had no idea how to prevent what was going to happen.

Almost like an explosion Onix appeared right behind Slowpoke, crashing into him and making him fly.

"Now wrap." Onix picked the still flying pokémon out of the air, snapping it within its grasp.

Slowpoke was looking hurt and was struggling against its grasp.

"Use water gun!" Now that they were up close, it had to hit. And it did, hitting Onix right under his chin, making him roar.

"AGAIN!" Ash was now screaming.

Slowpoke, with all his might, produced a water gun, this time hitting Onix right inn the face, making him drop Slowpoke.

Slowpoke fell 10 feet, landing on his feet, panting.

Onix had retreated 30 feet towards its trainer, looking hurt.

"Last chance, use tackle." Brock was still calm and calculated.

Onix in a last-ditch effort coiled back before he came springing towards Slowpoke.

"Use growl!" Slowpoke produced one of his signature sounds, a slow dopey uttering.

It didn't seem to scare Onix, though it seemed weirded out by the strategy and slowed down right before it hit Slowpoke, enough time for Ash's starter to hit it point blank with a water gun to the face, making the snake miss and collapse behind him.

Onix disappeared inn a flash of red.


End file.
